Have you ever had a stuffed onion? I hadn't, until last night. I had planned on making some granola in the crockpot, but wasn't able to find any certified gluten-free oats. Our neighborhood Whole Foods* didn't have any. I was counting on those oats. I had my meal plan laid out for the week, and the granola was important.

grr.

Instead of stomping around the house frustrated (more than once, that is) I started digging around the fridge and freezer and decided to stuff some onions.

Adam said it wouldn't work, which gave me the push I needed.

Guess what? They worked, and they were tasty. The kids had no interest, but who could blame them? They're onions. Stuffed. With stuff.

This is enough filler for 4 large onions, and I used my 6.5 quart crockpot. If you're interested in cooking more than 4, increase the ingredients, and feel free to stack the onions. They will still cook.Peel and core the onions. If you don't have one of those apple-corer thingies, this will be hard to do. I tried to core with a knife, and found it immensely difficult. I used the corer 4 times for each onion---you want a pretty big hole.

Chop up the spinach and bell pepper, and put it in a mixing bowl. Chop up the sausage and add it to the bowl along with the chopped pecans and the Parmesan cheese. Mix well.

Put the 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the bottom of your crockpot, and swirl around so the bottom is coated.

Stuff each onion with as much filling as you can.

Put the onions into the crockpot.

Cover and cook on high for 4-6 hours, or on low for 7-8. I was surprised how long they took to cook. I cooked ours on high for a bit over 5 hours.

The onions are done when they have turned golden brown and are pliable.

The Verdict.

These smelled wonderful while they were cooking, and made a stormy night feel warm and cozy.

I thought the flavor was quite good, and was happy to have discovered another "something" to stuff. Adam wanted his with a steak.

They are more of a side dish than a full meal, unless you eat 2.

*cross your fingers that the other Whole Foods has the oats I want/need...

15 comments:

I am sooo gonna do this one tomorrow!! I have all the ingredients to hand ready :-) I LOVE onions!! Thank you so much for this idea!! Hope you can smell the wonderful oniony aroma all the way from Liverpool....xx..

I bet they smelled just wonderful!! My husband and even my 4 yr old love cooked onions. Awesome job getting creative with ingredients you have on hand. RE: gluten free oats...you might have good luck at a health food store...you probably could call ahead to see if they have what you want. Good luck...nothing is more irritating than going to different stores and not finding what you need!

Hey Stephanie! I found your blog during that bloggy giveaway carnival...someone had your blog on their blog list and as soon as I saw the name, I came to your blog! I LOVE it! I've been saying that I needed some new crockpot recipes and WOW do you have a lot! I just thoought I'd comment since I've been visiting your site frequently over the past week:) Today I made the Brown Sugar Chicken...delicious! And tomorrow I'm making McCain's Ribs! I can't wait to try them!:) This is such an awesome idea and you are doing a fantastic job putting up all these great recipes! Thanks!

When I was younger we used to stuff onions when we were camping. We'd take the outer few layers of a really large onion (I think we used Vidalias) and stuff it with ground beef. I don't know that I ever tried them in the crockpot though. I'll have to give it a shot!

He told me that they are not getting shipments from their only supplier, Bob's.

The manager told me that they can't order food by type.. but by company/manufacturer, so the way they are set up, they can't "Find" a replacement, without our help.

He asked me to bring him names.

On my way home, I stopped into Earth Fare, and they do have it. I found this interestingly odd. However, I did notice that EF only has it in two pound packages.

Makes me wonder if the WF is ordering it smaller...

Whole Foods Customer Service is excellent, btw. Talk to them. Take your names to them. And never be afraid to tell them when something is wrong.. they always help me. I just wish Whole Foods wasn't so far away from where I live.

I prepped this tonight, and I can't WAIT to pop it in the cooker tomorrow. I don't have a corer, and using a knife was easier than I expected. I went ahead and used two spicy italian sausages, and I had a bit of the mix leftover, but my onions are stuffed to the top with deliciousness. Thanks for such a great idea!

Making this with leftover taco meat(today its soy protien for the girls in the house and chicken for boys), blackbeans, corn, cheese and peppers. So happy to have another vehicle to repurpose left overs. Maybe using it for leftover turkey and stuffing next week... I have a ton of onions from my co-op and csa.